VOK

‘Figure’ is a word whose meaning twists and transforms in different contexts: a figure in the darkness, to figure something out, a number, a body type, a sum, a shape. No wonder Icelandic four-piece Vök, whose atmospheric electronic pop is similarly capable of eclectic twists and changes, picked it as the title for their daring debut album. Full of distorted pulses, near-whispered melodies, echoing guitars and dreamy hooks, and influenced by everything from The Weeknd and Little Dragon to existential sci-fi cinema, their ambitious first full-length spans a whole spectrum of sounds and feelings. “Anger, obsession, negligence, death, love, happiness and hope,” lists vocalist Margrét, who began the band with saxophonist Andri Már in snowy, beautiful Reykjavík in early 2013. “The word figure can represent so many things. So does this album.”

For Vök, Figure has been three life-changing years in the making. After winning Icelandic rising talent contest Músíktilraunir within months of forming, the group – instrumentalist Ólafur Alexander and new addition Einar Stef on drums – marked themselves out as innovative makers of smart, smouldering jams on 2015 EP Circles. Hailed by Noisey as “channelling the Beach soundtrack via 1980s synth pop and the modern sexiness of The Knife,” that EP won them plenty of praise, but was “a very electronic and computer-based release,” the band reflect now. With Figure, the goal was to merge their cold, spectral electronic sound with something more human. “We took the music out of the computer and into a more live and organic environment.”